This Day in History for 8th December

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All Events Birthdays
Weddings Deaths

Historical Events

Events 1 - 100 of 167

1326 - Daitokuji temple, Rinzai line, established in Kyoto by Daito Kokushi
1609 - Biblioteca Ambrosiana opens its reading room, the second public library of Europe.
1659 - Mexican border town Ciudad Juárez is founded by Fray García de San Francisco.
1710 - Battle at Brihuega: English Gen Stanhope captured
1776 - George Washington's retreating army crosses Delaware River from NJ
1777 - Capt Cook leaves Society Islands
1792 - 1st cremation in US, Henry Laurens
1794 - 1st issue of Herald of Rutland, VT published
1813 - Ludwig von Beethoven's 7th Symphony in A, premieres
1846 - Hector Berlioz's "La Damnation de Faust," premieres
1849 - Giuseppe Verdi's opera "Luisa Miller," premieres in Naples
1852 - Gustav Freytag's "Die Journalisten," premieres in Breslau
1854 - Pope Pius IX proclaims Immaculate Conception, makes Mary, free of Original Sin
1857 - 1st production of Dion Boucicaults "Poor of NY"
1863 - 2,500 reported killed as result of fire at Jesuit Church of La Compana Santiago Chile
1863 - Abraham Lincoln's Amnesty Proclamation and plan for Reconstruction of South
1864 - Pope Pius IX publishes encyclical Quanta cura ("Syllabus errorum")
1869 - 20th Roman Catholic ecumenical council, Vatican I, opens in Rome
1869 - Timothy Eaton founds T. Eaton Co. Limited in Toronto, Canada.
Outlaw Jesse James 1874 - Jesse James gang takes train at Muncie Kansas
1875 - Aleksandr Ostrovsky's "Volki i Ovsty," premieres in St Petersburg
1876 - Suriname begins compulsory education for 7-12 years
1880 - 5,000 armed Boers gather in Paardekraal South-Africa
1881 - Vienna's Ring Theater destroyed by fire, kills between 640-850
1886 - American Federation of Labor (AFL) formed by 26 craft unions Samuel Gompers elected AFL president
1895 - Battle at Amba Alagi: Ethiopian emperor Menelik II drives Italian general Baratieri's out
1896 - Start of Sherlock Holmes "Adventure of Missing 3 Quarter" (BG)
1899 - Natal: British fall/burst out belegerd Ladysmith
1902 - Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr became Associate Justice on Supreme Court
1907 - King Gustaf V of Sweden accedes to the Swedish throne.
1909 - Bird banding society found
1913 - Construction starts on Palace of Fine Arts in SF
1914 - British & German fleets battle at Falkland Island
1914 - Connie Mack sells Eddie Collins to the White Sox
Baseball Legend Connie Mack 1914 - Irving Berlin's musical "Watch your Step," premieres in NYC
1915 - Jean Sibelius' 5th Symphony in E, premieres
1921 - Eamon de Valera publicly repudiates Anglo-Irish Treaty
1923 - German-US friendship treaty signed
1923 - Labour/Liberals win British parliament
1923 - Salary & price freeze in Germany
1926 - Disappearance of Agatha Christie
1930 - Broadway Theater opens at 1681 Broadway NYC
1930 - Cole Porter's musical "NYCers," premieres in NYC
1931 - Coaxial cable patented
1934 - Friedrich Wolf's "Professor Mamlock," premieres in Zurich
1935 - The Japanese military police launches a violent suppression of the religious sect Oomoto, beginning with a crackdown on the sect's operational bases of Ayabe and Kameoka in Kyoto Prefecture and the arrest of its leader Onisaburo Deguchi.
1936 - Anastasio Somoza elected pres of Nicaragua
1936 - NAACP files suit to equalize salaries of black & white teachers
1938 - Highest temperature for December in US recorded in La Mesa Calif
Mystery Writer Agatha Christie 1938 - LP Beria follows Nikolai Jezjov as head of Russian secret police
1940 - 1st NFL championship on national radio; Bears beat Redskins 73-0
1941 - Destruction Camp Chelmo opens
1941 - London: Dutch government declares Japan the war
1941 - Russian 16th army recaptures Krijukovo
1941 - SF 1st blackout, at 6:15 PM
1941 - US & Britain declare war on Japan, US enters WW II
1942 - 8th Heisman Trophy Award: Frank Sinkwich, Georgia (HB)
1943 - John Van Druten's "Voice of the Turtle," premieres in NYC
1946 - Army rocket plane XS-1 makes 1st powered flight
1947 - "Caribbean Carnival" opens at International Theater NYC for 11 perfs
1948 - "Marinka" closes at Winter Garden Theater NYC after 168 performances
1948 - 14th Heisman Trophy Award: Doak Walker, SMU (HB)
1948 - Jordan annexs Arabic Palestine
1949 - "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" opens at Ziegfeld Theater NYC for 740 perfs
1949 - Chinese Nationalist government moves from Chinese mainland to Formosa
1949 - Jule Styne's "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes," premieres in NYC
1951 - "Tree Grows in Brooklyn" closes at Alvin Theater NYC after 267 perfs
1951 - AL alters its restrictions on night games, adopting NL's suspended game rule & lifting its ban on lights for Sunday games
1952 - 1st TV acknowledgement of pregnancy (I Love Lucy)
1952 - French troops shoot on demonstrators at Casablanca, 50 die
1952 - Isaak Ben-Zwi elected pres of Israel
1953 - 19th Heisman Trophy Award: John Lattner, Notre Dame (HB)
1953 - Dwight D. Eisenhower gives the Atoms for Peace speech.
1954 - Maxwell Anderson's "Bad Seed," premieres in NYC
1954 - WPTZ TV channel 5 in Plattsburgh, NY (NBC) begins broadcasting
1955 - 21st Heisman Trophy Award: Howard Cassady, Ohio State (HB)
1955 - Brooklyn catcher Roy Campanella wins his 3rd MVP Award
1955 - Turkish government of Menderes forms
1956 - 16th Olympic games close at Melbourne, Australia
1956 - 1st test firing of Vanguard satellite program, TV-0
1956 - Guy Mitchell's "Singing the Blues," single goes #1 for 10 weeks
1959 - Dom Mintoff demands independence for Malta
1959 - President Eisenhower watches Pakistan v Aust Test Cricket at Karachi
1960 - Expansion LA Angels sign a 4 year lease to use Dodger Stadium
1961 - Antwerp Belgium diocese forms
1961 - Larry Costello scores 32 consecutive pts without a miss (NBA rec)
1961 - South Africa v NZ, Durban debuts for Eddie Barlow & Peter Pollock
1961 - Wilt Chamberlain scores the 2nd highest total in the NBA - 78
1962 - "I Can Get It For You Wholesale" closes at Shubert NYC after 300 perfs
1962 - 114-day newspaper strike begins in NYC
1962 - Failed coup in Brunei
1962 - Funeral for Queen Wilhelmina of Holland (New Kerk, Delft)
1963 - "Girl Who Came to Supper" opens at Broadway Theater NYC for 112 perfs
1963 - Mickey Wright/Dave Ragan Jr wins LPGA Haig & Haig Scotch Mixed Golf
1963 - 3 fuel tanks explodes when jetliner is struck by lightning crashing near Elkton, Maryland-Only case of lightning caused crash, 81 die
1963 - Pan Am Flight 214 crashes outsideElkton, Marylandwith a loss of 81 people.
1965 - Abe Burrows' "Cactus Flower," premieres in NYC
1965 - Nikolai Podgorny succeeds Mikojan as president of USSR
1965 - Pope Paul VI signs 2nd Vatican council
American Baseball Player Roger Maris 1966 - A terrible Yankee trade, Roger Maris for Card's Charlie Smith

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Famous Birthdays

Birthdays 1 - 100 of 245

65 BC - Horace, Venusia, Lucania, Roman Republian poet (Odes), (d. 8 BC)
1508 - Gemma Frisius, [Jemme Reinersz], Frisian geographer/astronomer
1542 - Mary Stuart, Linlithgow Palace, Linlithgow, Queen of Scotland (1560-1587), (d. 1587)
1574 - Maria Anna of Bavaria, Empress consort of the Holy Roman Empire (d. 1616)
1626 - Christina, queen of Sweden who abdicated after becoming Catholic
1678 - Horatio Walpole, 1st Baron Walpole of Wolterton, English diplomat (d. 1757)
1699 - Maria Josepha of Austria, queen of Poland (d. 1757)
1704 - Anton de Haen, medical expert (Ratio Medendi)
1708 - Francis I, Holy Roman emperor (1745-1765)
1715 - John Althuysen, Frisian vicar/poet (Frisianche rymlery)
1728 - Johann G von Zimmermann, Swiss author
1730 - John Ingen Housz, Dutch/English personal physician of Maria Theresia
1730 - Jan Ingenhousz, Dutch-born British physiologist and botanist (d. 1799)
1731 - Frantisek Xaver Dusek, composer
1737 - Robert Kimmerling, composer
1741 - Maximilian JLP Gardel, French dancer/choreographer (Menuet Reine)
1744 - Pierre Joseph Candielle, composer
1765 - Eli Whitney, inventor (Cotton Gin)
1789 - John Fawcett, composer
Queen of Scotland Mary Stuart (1542) 1795 - Jacques Francois Gallay, composer
1795 - Peter Andreas Hansen, Danish astronomer (d. 1874)
1811 - Louis Alexander Balthasar Schindelmeisser, composer
1815 - Adolph Menzel, German painter and graphic artist (d. 1905)
1816 - August Belmont, Sr., Prussian-born American financier (d. 1890)
1817 - Christian Emil Krag-Juel-Vind-Frijs, Danish nobleman and politician (d. 1896)
1822 - Luther Prentice Bradley, Brigadier General (Union volunteers), died in 1910
1826 - Friedrich Siemens, German industrialist
1828 - Clinton Bowen Fisk, Bvt Major General (Union volunteers), died in 1890
1828 - Robert Bullock, Brigadier General (Confederate Army), died in 1905
1832 - Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson, Norwegian author "Pa Guds Veje" and Nobel laureate (d. 1910)
1861 - Aristide Maillol, France, painter/sculptor (Seated Woman)
1861 - William Crapo Durant, founded General Machine
1862 - Georges Feydeau, French playwright (La Dame de Chez Maxim's)
1865 - Jacques Hadamard, French mathematician (Taylor series)
1865 - Jean Sibelius, Tavastehus Finland, composer (Valse Triste, Finlandia)
1872 - J C Powys, writer
1874 - Ernst Moro, Austrian physician (d. 1951)
1877 - Paul Emile Ladmirault, composer
1881 - Padraic Colum, Irish poet/novelist/poet (Collected Poems)
1882 - Manuel Maria Ponce, Fresnillo Mexico, composer (Estrellita)
Painter Diego Rivera (1886) 1886 - Diego Rivera, [Lenin of Mexico], Guanajuato, Guanajuato, Mexico, painter/wife of Frida Kahlo (En el Arsenal ), (d. 1957)
1887 - Vicente Emilio Sojo, composer
1888 - Fiske Kimball, US architect/art historian
1888 - Paul Cavanagh, Chislehurst England, actor (Tarzan & his Mate)
1888 - Vesey D'Davoren, character actor
1889 - W Hervey Allen, US writer/poet (Anthony Adverse)
1890 - Bohuslav Jan Martinu, Policka Czechoslovakia, composer (Hry o Marti)
1894 - James (Grover) Thurber, Columbus Ohio, humorist (Men, Women & Dogs)
1894 - E.C. Segar, American cartoonist (Popeye) (d. 1938)
1897 - Leslie Heward, composer
1899 - James "Pigmeat" Jarrett, pianist
1899 - John Qualen, Vancouver BC, actor (Grapes of Wrath, Searchers)
1899 - Sarah Williamson, US missionary in Liberia
1900 - Sun Li-jen, Chinese general (d. 1990)
1902 - Wifredo Lam, Cuban artist (d. 1982)
1903 - Adele Simpson, NYC, fashion designer (Neiman-Marcus Award-1946)
1903 - Cleo Brown, pianist
1903 - Irene Eisinger, singer
1903 - Kathleen (Kitty) Rosalind Muggeridge, author
1903 - Zoltan Szekely, composer
1904 - Wilmer L Allison Jr, tennis champ (US Open-1935)
1905 - Charles Cushing, composer
1905 - Ernst Hermann Meyer, composer
1905 - Frank Faylen, St Louis Mo, actor (Herbert Gillis-Dobie Gillis)
1905 - Julius Silverman, politician
1906 - Richard Llewellyn, Wales, novelist (How Green Was My Valley)
1907 - Tony Aubin, composer
1908 - John Volpe, (Gov-Mass)/US Secretary of Treasury (1969-73)
1911 - Lee J Cobb, NYC, actor (Virginian, 12 Angry Men, On the Waterfront)
1911 - Nikos Gatsos, Greek poet and lyricist (d. 1992)
1912 - Jura Soyfer, writer
1913 - Delmore Schwartz, US, poet/short story writer/critic (Shenandoah)
1913 - Paul Félix, Flemish architect (Sun Song)
1915 - Denis Harding, soldier
1915 - George Scheuer, writer/journalist
1915 - Ernest Lehman, American screenwriter (d. 2005)
1916 - Dorothy Mae Ballard, labor union rep
1916 - Richard Fleischer, American film director (d. 2006)
1917 - Rufo I Wever, Aruban pianist/composer (Ca'i Organ)
1918 - Ian Johnson, cricketer (Australian Test captbetween Hassett & Craig)
1918 - Gérard Souzay, French baritone (d. 2004)
1919 - Hans-Dieter Hosalla, composer
1919 - Moyssey Samuilovich Vaynberg, composer
1919 - Peter Tali Coleman, American politician (d. 1997)
1920 - Emmanuel McDonald Bailey, Trinidad, 100m runner (Olympic-bronze-1952)
1920 - Ron Gulliford, educationalist
1921 - Johnny Otis, California, R&B talent scout (Cold Shot, Cuttin' Up)
1921 - Terence Morgan, London England, actor (Adv of Sir Francis Drake)
1921 - Terence Weil, cellist/teacher
1922 - George Fullerton, cricketer (South African keeper-batsman 1947-51)
1922 - Jean Ritchie, rocker
1922 - John B McKay, US test pilot (X-15)
1922 - Lucian Freud, Berlin German, artist (Boy With a Rat)
1923 - Rudolph Pariser, Chinese-born American chemist
1925 - James E "Jimmy" Smith, US jazz/organist (Walk on the Wild Side)
1925 - Sammy Davis Jr, NYC, singer/dancer/actor (Ocean's 11, Candy Man)
1925 - Carmen Martín Gaite, Spanish author (d. 2000)
1927 - Vladimir Aleksandrovich Shatalov, USSR, cosmonaut (Soyuz 4, 8, 10)
1927 - Ferdie Pacheco, the "Fight Doctor"
1928 - Ulric Neisser, Kiel, Germany, America psychologist (Intelligence: Knowns and Unknowns, Bell Curve task force head), (d. 2012)

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Famous Weddings

Weddings 1 - 2 of 2

2007 - "Happy Days" actor and legendary bachelor Scott Baio (46) weds longtime girlfriend Renee Sloan at a luxury high-rise in Los Angeles
2007 - Backstreet Boys member Howie Dorough (34) weds longtime girlfriend Leigh Boniello at St. James Cathedral in Orlando, Florida

Famous Divorces

Divorces 1 - 1 of 1

2010 - "Heart" rock singer Nancy Wilson (56) divorces "Almost Famous" and "Elizabethtown" director Cameron Crowe (53) due to irreconcilable differences after 24 years of marriage

Famous Deaths

Deaths 1 - 100 of 111

644 - Omar I, 2nd kalief of Islam, murdered
899 - Arnulf of Carinthia, last emperor of Austria-France, dies
1292 - John Peckham, English archbishop of Canterbury, dies at 62
1596 - Luis de Carabajal, 1st Jewish author in America, executed in Mexico
1626 - John Davies, English poet (b. 1569)
1632 - Philippe van Lansberge, Flemish astronomer (b. 1561)
1643 - John Pym, English statesman (b. 1583)
1649 - Noël Chabanel, French Jesuit missionary (b. 1613)
1652 - Adriaan W "Joris" van Geel, Flemish missionary, murdered at 35
1680 - Henry Pierrepont, 1st Marquess of Dorchester, English politician (b. 1606)
1681 - Gerard Terborch, the Younger, Dutch painter/etcher, dies
1691 - Richard Baxter, English clergyman (b. 1615)
1695 - Barthélemy d'Herbelot de Molainville, French orientalist (b. 1625)
1709 - Thomas Corneille, French dramatist, dies at 74
1722 - Elisabeth C "Liselotte" van Palts, German/French duchess, dies at 70
1744 - Marie-Anne de Mailly-Nesle duchess de Châteauroux, mistress of King Louis XV of France (b. 1717)
1745 - Etienne Fourmont, French orientalist (b. 1683)
1746 - Charles Radclyffe, British politician (b. 1693)
1756 - William Stanhope, 1st Earl of Harrington, British statesman and diplomat
1768 - Jean Denis Attiret, French Jesuit missionary (b. 1702)
1779 - Nathan Alcock, English physician (b. 1707)
1785 - Antonio Maria Mazzoni, composer, dies at 68
1811 - Eliza Poe, English-born American actress and the mother of the American author Edgar Allan Poe(b. 1787)
1830 - H Benjamin Constant, French politician/writer, dies at 63
1831 - James Hoban, architect who designed White House, dies
1859 - Thomas de Quincey, English author (b. 1785)
1864 - George Boole, British inventor of Boolean algebra (b. 1815)
1885 - William Henry Vanderbilt, member of the Vanderbilt family (b. 1821)
1894 - Willem JF Nuyens, Dutch physician/RC historian, dies at 71
1894 - Pafnuty Chebyshev, Russian mathematician (b. 1821)
1896 - Earnest Angel, German statistician (Law of Angel), dies at 75
1900 - Henry Russell, composer, dies at 87
1903 - Herbert Spencer, British engineer/philosopher, dies at 83
1907 - Oscar II Frederick, King of Sweden (-1907)/Norway (-1905), dies
1914 - Maximilian von Spee, German naval officer (b. 1861)
1917 - Mendele Moykher Sforim, Russian writer (b. 1836)
1923 - Dom Joseph Pothier, French Benedictine/musicologist, dies at 88
1924 - Franz X Scharwenka, German pianist/composer (Mataswintha), dies at 74
1926 - Jan Six, Dutch art historian/collector, dies
1934 - Bernhard Seklas, composer, dies at 62
1938 - Friedrich Glauser, German-language Swiss writer (b. 1896)
1939 - Ernest Schelling, composer, dies at 63
1940 - George Exton Lloyd, Anglican Bishop and theologian (b. 1861)
1952 - Charles Lightoller, English second officer on the Titanic (b. 1874)
1954 - Gladys George, actress (Roaring Twenties), dies at 50
1955 - Jacques Handschin, Swiss musicologist, dies at 69
1956 - Edgar Leslie Bainton, composer, dies at 76
1957 - Reginald Sheffield, actor (Second Chance), dies at 55
1958 - Tris Speaker, American baseball player (b. 1888)
1961 - William Beatton Moonie, composer, dies at 78
1963 - Field Marshal Sarit Dhanarajata, Prime Minister of Thailand (b. 1908)
1966 - Ward Morehouse, American theater critic and newspaper columnist (b. 1899)
1967 - Robert H Lawrence, USAF/astronaut, dies at 32
1967 - John Mills, Sr., American singer (Mills Brothers) (b. 1889)
1969 - Vincenzo Davico, composer, dies at 80
1970 - Christopher K Ingold, English chemist, dies at 77
1972 - George Collins, (Rep-Ill), dies at 47, in airplane crash
1975 - Gary Thain, New Zealand bassist (Uriah Heep) (b. 1948)
1978 - Golda Meir, Israel's PM (1969-74), dies in Jerusalem at 80
Rocker/Beatle John Lennon (1980) 1980 - John Lennon, shot and killed in NY by Mark David Chapman at 40
1981 - Shakey, [Walter Horton], harmonicist (Everybody's Fishin'), dies at 64
1982 - Andre Kamperveen, Suriname minister, murdered
1982 - Bertus de Harder, Dutch soccer star (Bordeaux), dies
1982 - Bram Behr, Suriname revolutionary, murdered
1982 - Cyrill Daal, Suriname worker's union leader, murdered
1982 - Frank Wijngaarde, Suriname journalist, murdered
1982 - Harald Riedewald, Suriname attorney, murdered
1982 - John Baboeram, Suriname lawyer, murdered
1982 - Jozef Slagveer, Suriname journalist, murdered
1982 - Kenneth Goncalves, Deacon of Surinamese order of advocate, murdered
1982 - Leckie, Suriname scholar, murdered
1982 - Leslie Rahman, Suriname journalist, murdered
1982 - Marty Robbins, country singer, dies at 57
1982 - Shakey, [Walter Horton], rocker, dies at 72
1982 - Surendre Rambocus, Suriname army lieutenant, murdered
1983 - Slim Pickins, actor (Blazing Saddles), dies after brain surgery at 64
1984 - Luther Adler, actor (Dr Bernard Altman-The Psychiatrist), dies at 81
1984 - Razzle, English Musician and drummer for Hanoi Rocks (b.1960)
1984 - Robert Jay Mathews, White Nationalist (b. 1953)
1988 - Anne Seymour, actress (Misty, Chevy Mystery Show), dies at 79
1988 - Herbert "Tubo" Rhoad, US singer (Persuasions-Good news), dies at 44
1989 - Hans Hartung, German/French painter, dies
1990 - Martin Ritt, US, director/actor (Norma Rae), dies at 70
1990 - Pony Sherrell Metcalf, NY, singer, dies of heart attack
1991 - Buck Clayton, US jazz trumpeter/orchestra leader, dies
1991 - Kimberly Bergalis, got AIDS from health care worker, dies at 23
1992 - William Shawn, US editor-in-chief (New Yorker, 1952-87), dies at 85
1993 - Andre Cerf, French actor/producer (Nana), dies at 93
1993 - Carlotta Monti, lover of WC Fields, dies at 86
1994 - Antonio Carlos Jobim, Brazil composer (Girl From Ipanema), dies at 67
1994 - Israel Aaron Maisels, lawyer, dies at 89
1995 - Carl Marsden, bodyguard, dies at 36
1995 - Ernest LeRoy Boyer, educator, dies at 67
1995 - John Gillett, film researcher, dies at 70
1995 - Mikki Doyle, journalist, dies at 79
1996 - Howard E Rollins Jr, actor (Ed Harding-Another World), dies at 46
1996 - Marin Sorescu, poet/dramatist, dies at 60
1997 - Bob Bell, clown (WGN's 1st Bozo), dies at 75
1997 - Leon Poliakov, historian, dies at 87
1999 - Péter Kuczka, Hungarian writer (b. 1923)